Oxford MPP Ernie Hardeman says his constituents and Ontarians deserve answers in the wake of Elizabeth Wettlaufer’s guilty pleas in the murders of eight vulnerable seniors, seven of whom lived in his riding.

“It happened in my riding and all these people have a right to know what happened,” said the Oxford Progressive Conservative MPP, the region’s senior politician at Queen’s Park.

“It’s going to be settled without a trial and a trial is where all the information would have come out.”

Hardeman’s push for answers appears to be at odds with his own party, whose longterm care critic downplayed calls for an inquiry in the fallout of Wettlaufer’s guilty pleas earlier this month.

The Woodstock resident, a former longterm care nurse, faces a life prison sentence with no chance of parole for 25 years when her case returns to court later this month.

She’s pleaded guilty to eight counts of first-degree murder, four of attempted murder and two of aggravated assault, all involving vulnerable patients who were in her care.

She used insulin to poison her victims.

Seven of the eight people who died lived at the Caressant Care nursing home in Woodstock, from which Wettlaufer, court documents show, was fired after being accused of making repeated medication-related errors. From there, she went on to Meadow Park nursing home in London, where her last murder victim lived. Hardeman, a 22-year veteran of the legislature, has written Health Minister Eric Hoskins over numerous questions swirling around how Wettlaufer, a registered nurse, managed to kill patients over seven years, from 2007 to 2014, without being noticed or reported.

Hardeman, who has received more than 100 letters from nurses and others demanding an investigation, is also asking why Wettlaufer was never sanctioned by the Ontario College of Nurses after being informed she had been fired for putting a patient at risk.

He said he wants to know why red flags weren’t raised when Wettlaufer confessed to a lawyer, who advised her to keep quiet.

And, he said, he wants to know why it took so long for government to make a legislative changes to give the College of Nurses the legal right to restrict or suspend a nurse without first completing an investigation, in light of the knowledge that the College of Nurses was advocating for that right.

Hardeman said the public deserves “a full investigation by the Ontario government.”

“I’m not asking for an inquest,” Hardeman said. “I want to know what they’re doing to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

Hardeman has asked for a response from Hoskins within two weeks.

Following Wettlaufer’s confession several senior’s advocacy groups have been calling for an official inquest including CARP, the Advocacy Centre for the Elderly (ACE), and Elder Abuse Ontario.

Hoskins has said in a statement that he and Premier Kathleen Wynne believe it’s too early yet to make a decision about an inquiry.

“Both her and I have indicated our openness to whatever form that might take. However, we’re still in the middle of a court process today,” Hoskins wrote in an emailed statement to media.

“This is something that should have never happened and nobody should have to go through that,” he said. “I don’t think we need (an inquiry) at this point — when it was one person and very premeditated. I’m not certain we want to go there — I think we are better off taking a look at the what the courts and police come up with.”